I dare you to ban the use of Laptops

This Blog is based on the ‘High-Performance Management and Teams’ management model designed to help IT Managers and Teams. It is based on 40 years of IT management consulting, improving the performance and productivity of IT Departments and Teams across the Insurance, Banking, Finance, Health, Transport, Retail, Superannuation and Technology sectors.

High-Performance Teams are successful because they love their work.

Any team can achieve High-Performance.


Imagine your management team meeting always being much shorter than usual. A meeting without an agenda or minutes, where everyone is focused and not distracted, where everyone is excited to be there and eagerly contributes. This is a typical High-Performance Management Team Meeting.


Ban the Laptop

We all still use a pad and pen, and for good reason, it’s simple, it works. A pad is ideal for recording our thoughts and is an easy way to organise them. When you walk into any business these days, you see most people staring at their screens. Screens have a purpose for on-line collaboration, preparing presentations and documents and internet access. However, the ubiquitous laptop user takes more notes compared to those who use a pad and pen. Consider for a moment a study that was done by Princeton University and the University of California respectively were students who took notes on paper learnt and recalled significantly more compared to their laptop peers.

Here’s why; typing and writing use different cognitive processes. Research shows that laptop users type virtually everything they hear without processing the meaning of the notes they are taking. Typing is mindless transcription. Note-taking requires listening, paraphrasing, and listing of key points. Your cognitive process is more involved in the process of comprehension, and so this information is remembered better.

High-Performance meetings ban the use of laptops for this reason.

You may think banning laptops in meetings is being a bit precious or frivolous but think again. The laptop users are not engaged with the meeting conversations, they are being robotic. For all intents and purposes, they might as well not be there. Ban them.


Try this little test in a light-hearted way at your next meeting. Whilst one of your laptop users is busily typing away, ask them: “Martin, without looking at your notes, what was the last thing that was said?” You can guess the outcome. 


Tips for a good meeting

Whilst on the subject of meetings, here are some suggestions for running good meetings.

  • Timebox the meeting. Work backwards from your normal meeting time E.g. If your management team meeting is usually scheduled for an hour, challenge everyone to Timebox it for 45 minutes, making sure everyone understands that the full agenda must be worked through in that time. Everyone’s focus and concentration will double.

  • Ban the use of laptops; they are distracting, insist on written notes and explain why.

  • Have a rotating chairperson to allow each team member to gain experience with this skill.

  • Have last person who arrives take the minutes as arriving late is unprofessional. (For those not running High-Performance meetings.)

  • No war stories, no discussions about similar experiences that don’t add value.

  • Hold the meeting late in the day to allow for an open-ended finish time. This increases focus and shortens the meeting.

  • Have everyone stand for the meeting. This is an excellent technique for having a very quick 15 to 20-minute meeting.


High-Performance Team examples

  • IT Executive Management teams.

  • IT Technical Support teams.

  • IT Managed Services teams.

  • IT Service Delivery teams.

  • IT Service Desk.

  • IT Projects.

  • IT/Business integration.

  • IT mergers and acquisitions teams.


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